


Who Cast Your Shadow?

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, brief mention of rape as a concept
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22610752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Tooth knows how to negotiate. She bargains her freedom for the safety of her fairies and Jack’s memories, planning to find a way to escape once she knows everyone is safe. Pitch thinks he got a raw deal and requires something more.Bonus points if-Tooth is very protective of her fairies. Warrior-Queen fiercely protective.-Once she realizes what Pitch is asking for, she hesitantly accepts, thinking it’ll buy her time to escape-She imagines she’s fucking Jack instead-she ends up moaning Jack’s name (really interested to see Pitch’s reaction to this, whatever it is)"Or, Gretchen writes a fill where the original prompt is referenced but something different but still kind of creepy and emotionally painful happens.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Toothiana
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Cavity Short Fics





	Who Cast Your Shadow?

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 5/16/2014.

“I’ll require more of you than your freedom,” Pitch says, staring levelly at Tooth. “After all, your fairies are leaving with more than just theirs.”  
  
Above them both, Tooth’s flock of fairies swirls in eddies of green, the ebb and flow of their little forms revealing a glint of gold every few seconds. Jack’s memories, protected from the nightmares blocking the way out by thousands of guards. Tooth refuses to allow harm to come to any of them.  
  
“If this is all equivalent, does that mean you want memories too?”  
  
Pitch smiles grimly. “I want _good_ memories.”  
  
What’s a good memory to the Boogeyman? Tooth glances up at the fairies above her. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. She’d live through it, and her fairies wouldn’t be in cages anymore.  
  
“Done,” she says, and, almost to her surprise, Pitch sends the nightmares away from the tunnel to the surface. The fairies swarm out, the brilliant shimmer of their feathers lifting Tooth’s spirits as she sees the joy of freedom in every wingbeat.   
  
Then, of course, they are gone, leaving Tooth alone in the dark. Alone, with Pitch. What does he want of her? Will he put her in a cage and mock her as she screams? Well, let him, there is no shame in it; her reaction to cages is not her fault. Will he tear out her feathers one by one? Well, she has only so many, and they will of course grow back.  
  
But when Pitch moves it isn’t with violence. He holds out his hand to her. “Come with me,” he says.  
  
When she takes his hand, not wanting to draw anger where it has not yet appeared, it surprises her. The skin against her own is cool and dry, and that’s all. When she touches the others—Bunny, North, Sandy, and now Jack—she can feel the leaping, singing power beneath their skin, even with the most casual touch. Pitch feels far more human than she expected. Far more, she thinks, than he…even he…should.   
  
She wonders if she feels that way to him—the fairies just freed, belief in her is still weak.  
  
Lost in her thoughts, she doesn’t even notice that they’re approaching a bed before they stop.  
  
“This won’t do you any good,” she says as soon as she guesses what’s going to happen. “I may be a woman, but this is not my particular fear.”  
  
Pitch whips his head around to look at her. “If I wanted your fear I would have put you in a cage. I know that well enough. And, still! What must you think of me? Did you think I would rape you? Force myself upon you while you shut your eyes tightly and tried to block it all out with thoughts of Jack?” Pitch drops her hand and turns away. “I am the Boogeyman. I am one, singular, terrible thing. Not all of them.”  
  
“Then what have you brought me here for?” She flies around him so she can look him in the face once more. “What do you want?”  
  
“I’ve already told you what I want, and you and the other Guardians are working ever so diligently to make sure I never have it,” he says bitterly. “But if I will not be believed in, I _will_ be seen. We will lie there, on that bed, and you will look at me, and _see_ me until I see fit to let you go.”  
  
“I’m not going to like what I see,” Tooth says.  
  
“That’s not what I asked for.” Pitch takes her hand once more and pulls her toward the bed.  
  


* * *

  
  
She told the truth: she doesn’t like what she sees. Pitch’s face is far from pleasant, and still less so with his particular mind animating it. Every contour seems shaped by cruelty, ever line unpleasantly alien. He says nothing as they lie here, and he doesn’t let go of her hand now.  
  
Why? She’s never seen him so still and silent before. Is this what he’s like without an audience? An empty space in the shape of a man? Of course, he is nothing but a shadow…  
  
Who were you before? The thought comes unbidden and refuses to leave, the longer she looks at his face. As he relaxes, ever so slightly and ever so slowly, isn’t there something fierce and fine about him? Isn’t there something, and more than something, of a man who used to be? And what could have happened, and what could have led him here? Was this a risk they all took? Slide just that much and they would fall? The thought was terrifying.   
  
“No!” Pitch says through gritted teeth, the first word he’s spoken since they lay down. “No past, Tooth. No memories. Look at me, now. I _am_ now, and I will be seen.”  
  
“And do you, a shadow, wish to be more real than the one who cast you?”  
  
“Yes,” Pitch says, holding her gaze. “I am older by far. I am taller. My reach is longer. And there is no going back.”  
  
Tooth becomes aware of her every feather. “Yes. I suppose that’s true.” How much does Pitch know of that? Perhaps no more than she knows of him. Perhaps far more. Silence settles heavily on them again for long minutes.  
  
“I knew you’d see things my way,” Pitch says, with a smile that finally touches his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> cenobitesquid said: Ohhhhhhhhhh this is wonderful *___*


End file.
